I’m glad this was a short book. This one was not a good fit for me. We get thrown into the story and I didn’t really follow exactly what was happening or why. The characters were terrible young men with a lot of sex on the brain. Like, it got old. Overall, I guess I don’t understand what the point of this book is?

*2.5Hollis is twenty-two years old, recovering from a recent breakup and trying to find a place for himself in the tangle that is the young adult life through his own pain and despair. And through love. This was the smallest book on my to-be-read pile. And also the lowest rated. I was extremely intimidated by it, surprisingly. I was afraid it would put me in a slump since everyone seemed to hate it. Well, I am kind of neutral on this one. The positives:I have not read The Magicians series by the...

I thought this book would never end, and considering the length of it (it's kinda short) that's saying something.A couple of days in the life of an over-privileged 20-something and all I could think was, "when is something going to happen?"To make it even more annoying, the guy has this inner monologue going on that is incredibly random and often repetitive. I forced myself to finish it, but it wasn't easy!

I positively despised this book and bailed at 17%. I picked it up based on the author, Lev Grossman. His other books are right in my genre wheelhouse. This however, is not. If you're interested in reading about obnoxious post-college guys living in 1990s Boston, then it may appeal to you. But I bailed after a Lexus-driving, entitled, boy-man character pushes the frame (with glass inside) out of his unemployed friend's window and basically says, "Oops!" Life is too short to spend reading "lost" f...

Apparently I'm in the minority here based on other reviews I've seen because I absolutely loved this book. No, it's not action packed but it's wonderfully written in a nothing-happens-but-we-continue-to-exist-regardless sort of way....which is important and terribly difficult to portray. Talk about a slice of life feeling. I immediately saw a parallel to Catcher In The Rye (which I also loved), and later learned that it was a big influence for the author. Warp is the story of several boys but fo...

~I Received a free copy of this from netgalley~Today I thank the Lord Jesus that Quentin Coldwater was accepted into Brakebills, learned magic, and had adventures in Fillory. Because this book was a cold hard look at what Quentin would have become if he'd gone to an ivy league school and ended up in a crap apartment with a meaningless life and no direction.And honestly, I spent the entire time wanting to punch Hollis in the face until I didn't have to listen to his inane thoughts any longer.The

3,5 stars. Wasn't as bad as the Goodreads reviews suggested, but there was something lacking.I definitely loved the writing style--it can certainly get cumbersome at times, and sometimes I have to reread certain passages multiple times, but Grossman paints a very vivid picture of Boston, and the places that Hollis visited. I absolutely loved the scene where Hollis and Peters went to the Donnellys house for the first time, to steal their spare key. I can really picture the place in my mind, and i...

'"What happened?" he whispered."Not too fucking much."'During one of the rare passages of Lev Grossman's Warp that, generously speaking, could be considered suspenseful, the protagonist and a friend have this exchange which I've quoted above. I quite liked this brief colloquy, because it doubles as a very succinct summary of the book itself.

I know it was short, but the read felt oh so long and unsatisfying.

I always see reviewers say that they “soooo wanted to like this book, but...”;Warp was kind of the opposite for me.Here's the thing: the whole story is sparsely filled with disaffected douchewangs and self-propelled uselessness. No one in the book seems to genuinely care about anyone or anything, and I echoed the sentiment right back at it: I didn't like the characters; I didn't care about the story.But...Parts of Warp were so painfully resonant. I too have been darkly listless, apathetically ai...

2 stars - Metaphorosis ReviewsA young man wanders around Boston over the course of a day and a half, worrying vaguely about an ex-girlfriend.I've been hearing about Lev Grossman's The Magicians, but it didn't hold much appeal for me. When I saw this book available and listed as a prequel (it doesn't seem to be), I thought I'd give it a shot.The book is easily summed up - it's a sequel to Catcher in the Rye, with some quotes thrown in. The book follows a wan Caulfield wannabe, detailing the quoti...

I still haven't read The Magicians. I saw the first season of the tv series, and enjoyed it, and I have the book, but just haven't gotten around to it. Everything I've read about Warp indicates that The Magicians is miles better – and I hope so. The description says that Warp is "Unlike other self-indulgent, whiny narratives of post-graduation angst"… Which is funny. I haven't read many (any) such self-indulgent or whiny narratives, but Warp was pretty darned self-indulgent and angsty, and seeme...

I picked this up hoping to keep myself warm this winter with the banked flame of my rage against Grossman's terrible whining baby-men heroes. However, two chapters in, there's already two descriptions of dreams and one metaphor about an abandoned shopping bag blowing in the chill wind. This is too boring even to hate-read.

I didn't think this was nearly as bad as many of the reviews on GoodReads indicate, but...The Magicians it is most definitely not. Warp was written before The Magicians trilogy and before Codex, and you don't need to check publishing dates to know this is a first novel. Grossman's signature wit and unique style is there, but it's buried under a lot of angst and apathy that smacks of a young male writer engaging in the textbook Holden Caufield worship that plagues every male under the age of 40 w...

If you’re a fan of Lev Grossman, this is kind of a must read. Mind you, it isn’t a particularly good book, nor does much happen in it. Okay, nothing really happens. It’s very much a pretentious, post-college type first novel. Truth be told, I’m surprised it even found a publisher because, while any sharp editor might recognize the potential here, it’s easy to see the author reaching for something that seems just beyond his grasp. Of course, if you’re familiar with his later works, you know he ge...

I won a copy of Warp from a Goodreads Giveaway and though I’m always excited to win any book, I was not holding out hope for this one.Full disclosure: I did not like The Magicians. It was well written but that was the only saving grace. I disliked the characters, all of them, immensely and saw them as nothing more than whiny, privileged self serving brats who, in another universe, would become callous CEOs of Fortune 500 companies. All the magic in the world couldn’t save the book so I didn’t bo...

The introduction swamped me in a wave of nostalgia, but I couldn't make it more than thirty pages in. I'm a Gen Xer and a sf&f nerd. I should be the exact audience for this, but as a woman, my 90s experience involved a fair amount of ducking Hollis Kesslers. Guys like him were hard enough to take in real life; I'm not subjecting myself to a bunch of awkward navel-gazing about them, at least not without a more compelling hook than we got here.The next time I'm craving a nostalgia bump, I'll revis...

'What happened?" he whispered. "Not too fucking much." Okay. Here's the deal. I can truly appreciate the lack of anything really happening in Warp. I enjoyed the book for that notion... how something so simple can speak volumes. The tone of the writing had the most impact.What is leaving me feeling underwhelmed is that I am just so confused with the ending... what's with the girl... and the house. Like.. WHAT HAPPENED? I am pretty sure I could pull out many examples in which Hollis seems (v

I won an ARC of this book in a Goodreads giveaway.When Lev Grossman said this was a book about twenty-somethings doing nothing, he wasn't joking. Not a whole lot happens. The main character, Hollis, is trying to find himself, sort of, there's a kind of a love story, and a bit of recreational breaking-and-entering that moves things along for a while. But throughout the book Hollis's greatest adventures take place inside his head. His real life never quite measures up. Despite being a self avowed

This is a great book, made unfortunately attackable by its misfiling in the SF section—Grossman's piece of the block. Really, if you pick it up not expecting people to blast off to another planet or go back in time, you won't be disappointed. (Some of the reviews, fittingly, remind me of the comments Richard Linklater reports overhearing in the book for Slacker: "There's some hostility, but I'd be surprised if there wouldn't be: 'They don't do anything!'")Still, this is a book, and not a movie,